The Changeling By Judith Ortiz Cofer Summary

In the poem “The Changeling” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, I read it as she’s trying to get her father’s attention, she is acting to be someone else because she changes into her brother’s clothes, as a costume, until it’s dinner time and her mother asks her to take those clothes off, it’s then where everything is back to reality. In the poem “The Birthplace” by Cofer, she talks about her hometown and how it lacks features on the hills which will stop her from going places, she doesn’t go to churches that are full of the people who regret their wrongs, the roads just lead to other roads, and how towns are the same to other towns. In the poem “On the Island I Have Seen” by Cofer she talks about men who work hard in the sun while old men play dominoes in the shade, women in black dresses asking

In the interview with Rafael Ocasio he asks who influences you and Cofer states that her grandmother influenced her because she would always go to her grandmother’s house and sit around her grandmother while her grandmother is telling her stories.Then in another interview with Marilyn Kallet she asks about her father and Cofer says that he wanted her to read books not cook if she didn’t want to learn how to and he wanted her to think that education is empowering. In another interview with Lorraine M. Lopez she asks what are your sources of your inspiration and Cofer responded her grandmother and her parents. In all of these interviews she shows that she truly cares about her family and that she hasn’t forgotten about where she comes from. Elements that I think define who she is as a person is that she doesn’t forget where she’s from, she doesn’t forget her family and her ethnicity. I feel that people admire her for the work shes done and the meanings behind the words and the work. I might have not known her for long, but I would admire her for not changing throughout the years and always remembering her hometown which is Puerto